“The greatest value of a picture is when it forces us to notice what we never expected to see.” - John Tukey
It was not just one story. The data showed multiple stories. Some are related, others highlight policy, and others are coincidental. Digging down, the police were spending a considerable amount of time assisting other agencies as far as 20 miles away. This allowed us to ask better questions and get to the root causes of why. When we presented our map plot it sank in.
The second was uncovering what caused the major increase in "calls for service". After reviewing the new analysis, the insight we found is that the single biggest jump year on year was in the "Check Property" category. A pro-active service that the police offered to residents, that had only started to be recorded in the latter part of 2022 and fully in 2023. This activity was considered minimal risk and often performed in 15 minutes or less. This insight along with a communication increase between police agencies explained that calls for service had not jumped by 38% but was 20% and if you factor out the COVID year’s 15%. Add that in 2021 a budget increase added one police officer to the staff, the increase of less than one additional "call for service" per day doesn't seem as grim as the original statement description.
Step 1: Understanding the data
Step 2: Building the data set
Step 3: Quality control
Step 4: Presentation of insight
Step 5: Lessons learned.
By: Patrick Grant, Director of Public Sector Sales
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